Thursday, 3 February 2011

Doomed?

Much has been said on Pete Brown’s blog about Molson Coors taking over Cornish brewer Sharp’s, producers of the rapidly growing (although in the eyes of many rather dull) Doom Bar Bitter. At a time when mass-market lager is a declining and increasingly commoditised business subject to severe price competition, it makes sense for a major brewer to seek to get into the higher-margin section of the market aimed at the more discerning and generally better off consumer. Very often, it is much easier to do this by acquiring existing businesses operating in that segment rather than building your own brands from scratch. You can see parallels with Cadbury buying Green & Blacks, and Coca-Cola acquiring a stake in Innocent Smoothies. But you have to be careful that you don’t kill the golden goose by eroding the qualities that made the brand a success in the first place.

Beer overall would benefit from Molson-Coors and the other international brewers becoming strong competitors in the cask and premium bottled markets. But somehow I don’t think they will. The precedent of what happened to Ruddles after being taken over by Grand Metropolitan is not exactly encouraging, and nor is that of Theakston’s or Boddington’s.

I’m certainly not a subscriber to the “tall poppies” school of beer appreciation, and I’m not saying that it is impossible for large corporations to be conscientious stewards of respected “authentic” premium drinks brands – this has been the case with Scotch malt whisky distilleries. But it never seems to happen with beer.

1 comment:

Despite the whole history of brewery takeovers, some people - led by Pete Brown – seem to welcome this news. I find such a view strange. It's not negative to be wary about such a development; that’s because it's not negative to learn from previous experience. I hope the caution proves to be unjustified, because a massive company taking cask beer seriously in the long term would be a significant development. I’ll let time tell, as it always does, before popping the (metaphorical) champagne corks.

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This is not a beer blog. It's a view of life from the saloon bar, not entirely about the saloon bar - which of course is a metaphorical place as well as a physical one. It is as much about political correctness and the erosion of lifestyle freedom as it is about pubs and beer. And, while I enjoy cask beer, I don't assume that it is the only alcoholic beverage worth consuming.

I'm a non-smoker, but not an antismoker. I believe the owners of private property should be entitled to choose whether or not smoking is permitted on their premises. If any supporter of pubs still thinks the smoking ban was a remotely good idea, just look around at all the pubs that have closed since 1 July 2007. The smoking ban is what prompted the creation of this blog back then and, while it touches on many other topics, it remains essentially its core theme. However, there remains much to be enjoyed and celebrated in pubs despite the effects of the ban.

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